The Detroit News reports that Senator Clinton spent part of her pre-primary warm-up touring a plant in Maryland that builds transmissions for GM's full-size hybrid and heavy-duty trucks. The presidential candidate immediately began touting her plan to create five million "green-collar" jobs. To that end, the Senator from New York pledged to give $5b of your hard-earned money to automakers for battery research, and provide $20b in "green vehicle bonds" for automakers wishing to retool elderly factories (i.e. Ford, GM and Chrysler). Ms Clinton also promised $10k in tax credits for plug-in hybrid buyers. All of this in addition to the $8m the Washington Post says Ms. Clinton's secured for GM for "alternate fuel research;" $3m of which was buried in the fiscal 2008 Pentagon spending bill. Coincidentally enough, the Post also reports that GM lobbyist Steve Ricchetti is one of Hillary's fund raisers. Senator Clinton's campaign spokesperson said Ms. Clinton doesn't consider fundraising efforts when she's making official decisions. Apparently, "one thing has nothing to do with the other."
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With friends like Hillary, who needs Toyonda breathing down their necks?
What does she know about cars? She drives a broom.
Hillary,
I’ve got a couple of better slogans:
We gotta help the troops get out of Iraq.
We gotta help the middle class get an education.
We gotta help the middle class pay lower taxes.
We’ve gotta help 50 million medically uninsured Americans.
We don’t gotta help clueless American car management – they dug their graves – let the transplants bury them.
….She immediately began touting her plan to create 5m “green-collar” jobs by giving $5b of the taxpayer’s money to the automakers for battery research,
Because Lords know that private companies aren’t spending ANY money on battery research, it’s really kind of an unappreciated backwater.
Meanwhile, if she were talking to the local coal-minor’s union she’d propose spending $5 billion on research to develop coal-powered car engines!
@ Cicero
That made me laugh out loud.
While we’re past the point of CAFE-ridiculousness, why not mandate 1,000,000 mpg by 2040?
politicians suck.
@ Cicero
Priceless, almost had tea come out of my nose.
Since she’s pandering just like Mitt did a couple of weeks ago, is her campaign likewise doomed?
FTA: 18 workers are assembling 90 2-mode transmissions per day on one shift, with a second shift soon to come online. That’s about 50k transmissions in a year.
Cicero: Awesome! Funniest thing I have read for a while.
Kevin: Here you go:
Oops, Kevin, this is try # two: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1224847020080212?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Cicero nice that was funny. We are all doomed if she becomes president. She will end up taxing us all unto we break and then come back for more.
coal-powered car engines!
They already had those 100 years ago, they didn’t go over well. People hated waiting 20 minutes to have enough steam pressure to go. If I remember correct they were very fast for the time once they got going.
Here’s your electric car + coal powered radio ;-)
Too bad it’s Canadian.
Clinton promises to protect blue collar jobs at White Marsh Md. plant.
Hey big government. Please go away.
Never accept a life preserver from someone who is drowning.
“Green-collar jobs” has got to be the most condescending phrase ever turned. Contempt for working people has never been higher.
As a Scotsman,and Canadian citizen spending my winters down here, let me cut through the slogans.
There is no way that a Democratic presidency will permit ‘Detroit ‘ to go under. Yes we know about managemental myopia, yes we are aware out-of control costs. The bail-out is coming in some form.
Get over it, vultures, and learn to love it.
Gonnahappen.com
Keep this idiot out of the White House!
Does anyone in D.C. understand how the free market works? Continuously handing out money doesn’t do anything to help progression of industry. Although it does serve to waste my taxes that were raped out of my wallet.
If she wins the election I’m quitting my job because after she’s done raising my taxes I’ll make more money on welfare and unemployment.
50 years they had to figure it out. Huge salaries for their execs – now we’re supposed to fork over the dough even after paying a fortune to gas and fix their POS cars. I noticed yesterday (mon. feb. 11) that the stock market went up only a hundred points, yet ford (f) and gm (gm) went up about 6% each. today the market went up alot more than yesterday. Does a sharp rise in car stocks preceed a rising market for the next day? Is this phenomenom a reliable indicator? Maybe the saying “as GM goes, so goes the nation” is still somewhat true? You gotta help me.
sundbyd@comcast.net
Since politicians know so much about the automotive industry, why doesn’t the gubment just buy them out? Then the Democrats can show us what they really think of blue-collared boys..and we would be one step closer to Hillary’s eutopia – China.
Her plan to save the 2.something could be similar to her health plan; buy one or else we’ll fine you or sling your arse in jail.
Apparently, “one thing has nothing to do with the other.”
Yeah, the Clintons have used the argument for decades now. Do you think these lobbyists are idiots and keep giving money when they get nothing in return?
Green Collar jobs isn’t as brain dead as “Building a Bridge to the 21st Century” was (1996 B.Clinton slogan). WTF did that mean? Was that bridge NAFTA and China in the WTO?
Building a Bridge to the 21st Century
Building a bridge from your wallet(tax dollars) to my supports.
This country is slowly but surely becoming a white collar country; the factories go overseas, while the offices stay here. Am I wrong in thinking that this is progress? One thing’s for damn sure, I fail to see why bailing out uncompetitive companies is so worthwhile to some people. Even if I was one of the workers whose future is in peril, I’d pick up the pieces and find a way to move on. I’ve done it several times before so I know from experience that it CAN be done. Buh bye UAW, and thanks for the memories.
On a side note, do we really want 20+ years of rule by two “royal” families? That doesn’t reflect too well on democracy.
Why all these vociferous reactions when a candidate proposes applying industrial policy to the automotive industry?
Personally, I’m not a strong supporter of industrial policy. But it’s not like as if the U.S. was some kind of radical-capitalist utopia.
You’ve already got the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex, massive subsidies for the housing industry though taxpayer-supported mortgages, massive subsidies to the agricultural sector, and whatnot.
Is there any branch of the economy or any subject in the universe where she wouldn`t have offered help or solutions? Hillary I have a question-where are you going to take money from for all of this programs? You can`t just print out more money because Fed Reserve is already printing in three shifts, and it`s hard to find a `pocket` where we could print out some `greencollared allowance` or whatever you call it.
hillary ,your only trump is being a woman(as an opposition to a white man ,who is there now, your other trump is being democrat, because the president we have now is republican) The same trumps are in Obama`s hands.So people will vote for anybody who resembles as little as possible the current president. fools they are, if visual looks or party can decide of the contents.I can tell you,even if you paid me 100bucks, I wouldn`t vote for Hillary, Obama or Mccain( good president ,because he has ben a POW?). But if I had to pay 100 dollars to be able to vote for Ron Paul, I would do it. She pledged to give your hard-earned money to these programs. MAybe it was not so hard-earned money. If it was ,you would yield fruits of your hard work. Perspiring at keyboard and perspiring at aligning a Komatsu robot ain`t the same thing.
On pissing money down the toilet: I wonder how many of the $600 “rebates” will be spent as a down payment on a U.S. built car, versus buying a Chinese-made flat-screen TV?
Well, at least it will save the govt. money on the digital converter vouchers for next Feb.
Except cars aren’t computers, or have we forgotten that the same mileage people are getting in a Prius was had 10 years ago in a Geo and 20 yeas ago in a Honda?
I really can’t see her getting the Democratic nod to run for President, but crazier things have happened (I certainly hope she doesn’t!).
Lets face a reality here – no one likes taxes. I sure as hell don’t. But reality is we like our freedoms, our roads (as crappy as they may be), our police to protect us, our armed forces to protect us, Social Security (which I will probably never see any of, even though I pay into it), etc. The government’s income is – wait for it – taxes. Just like anyone else, if you keep spending more than you take in, what happens? Well, the government does seem to be immune from bankruptcy, but our currency value sure does stink right now.
Point is we were paying a little more taxes under B. Clinton, but our dollar was worth more. And we were out of a budget deficit. Under the current administration we pay a little less taxes and our dollar is in the toilet as far as value goes. And we have a much larger government than we had before.
Before someone points out that Congress was Republican controlled under B. Clinton’s administration, let me point out for 6 of 8 years of Bush’s administration it was Republican controlled too.
Sounds a little like GM doesn’t it? More programs with a shrinking revenue stream.
GEO? What is this double talk? If you mean Suzuki, so be it! ( otherwise someone might think there was an american brand fuel saving car)
Vote buying knows no limits. Who cares what anything costs when it’s free money from taxpayers.